Islamic State will survive – and thrive – for as long as war and chaos live on

Aristotle believed that nature abhors a vacuum. As we have seen in the Middle East in recent years, it is not only nature: politics abhors a vacuum too.

The political conflict in Syria, between the regime that has ruled the country for the last 40 years and its varied opponents, directly resulted in the partial collapse of an ordered society, albeit a dictatorial one. In much of Syria, where once there was order and governmental institutions, we find petty principalities briefly ruled by one opposition movement or another.

Shifting alliances, internecine squabbles and a strong determination by every faction leader to seize power for himself meant that the opposition focused on soldiers, weapons and logistics rather than on rebuilding the civic infrastructure in their area. The result was, inevitably, chaos.

Into this chaos came a new order built around a twisted understanding of Islam and a fondness for sectarian violence. This new order is, of course, Islamic State.

INFOGRAPHIC: Syria and the Islamic State explained - the oil, the money, who’s fighting who

Before the Arab spring destabilised an entire region, the idea of a theocratic, extremist state erupting out of nowhere in the Middle East would have been regarded as ludicrous. Now, it is a nightmare which we all share: modern Islamic religious extremism, born out of the fire of conflict in Iraq and Syria, showers the entire planet with the glowing embers of hatred and religious fanaticism. These embers can catch light anywhere, and they produce a warped misinterpretation of faith that excludes, denies and even hates all others.